Scenarios
As the gamesmaster, it will be up to you to invent all of the details of the game. You must decide for yourself where the adventure is taking place, why it is taking place, and what the player characters have got to do with it all. Each adventure can be regarded as a scenario; the Oldenhaller Contract is a scenario designed for you so that you can see what one entails. A number of scenarios can be played successively to form a lengthy game campaign. Campaigns might take up whole weeks, months, or even years. The advantage of playing a campaign, rather than a series of unrelated scenarios, is that the players will identify closely with their characters and their environment. As they play more scenarios they will become more familiar with the locality and can establish permanent contacts, hide-outs, or supply dumps. Designing a whole campaign is a big step, but it need not all be undertaken at once. A far better plan is simply to design one scenario and, if your players survive, take it from there. Plot A scenario is based on a plot or theme. However, it is not an exact storyline, like in a book or film, since it must allow for many different actions on the part of the players' characters. The first thing you must decide when designing a scenario is the plot. You will probably have hundreds of good ideas, but here are some ideas for plots that have formed the basis for many of our own games. Investigate and report: This morning a bloodied and exhausted rider galloped into town, hurled his dying carcass into the town sheriff's office and instantly expired. He was one of the settlers/soldiers/miners from a distant village. The sheriff has organised a party of adventurers to investigate - offering 10 GCs to any volunteer who returns with news. What the characters will discover is that the settlement has been taken over by a group of Orcs who are even now sacrificing their human captives to their own dark gods. Gold Fever!!!: An old Dwarf mine has been uncovered in the hills and adventurers from miles around are congregating to share in the booty. The mine has been abandoned for thousands of years, but is it as empty as it appears? Has it been occupied by dangerous creatures or does something supernatural lurk inside? How do the members of the local Dwarf community feel about the looting of their ancestral property? Larcenous Pursuits: The old temple contains a rich treasure and is poorly guarded. The people of the town are backward and foolish to take so few precautions. You would be doing them a favour by relieving them of this troublesome burden. There are guards both inside and out and maybe traps inside too in order to discourage nocturnal visitors. Furthermore, the high priest lives in the temple with several acolytes. Such dangers are trifling compared with the riches rumored to be inside. Stand and Deliver: According to a local contact, a special coach is due to leave town within a week. You don't know what's on board, but whatever it is, the owners are being really secretive, hiring extra guards and silencing dissenters with bribes or threats. You are curious to say the least. Are all these precautions for the benefit of a treasure hoard or perhaps some high ranking official or prisoner? In any case, there could be a fortune involved. The Quest: The characters have been sent on a quest by some powerful NPC. They must find an item or person located in some dark and dangerous place. Perhaps a long-deserted house, an isolated ruin or an ancient and long-abandoned Dwarf Citadel. Quests can be beneficial to the characters involved. For example, a quest might aim at recovering a sacred relic whose powers can heal a debilitating disease or mental illness. Assassination and Kidnapping: The characters have been hired to kill or kidnap a powerful NPC. The task will not be easy as the victim suspects a plot and has already taken precautions for his safety. Furthermore, he lives in a remote and inaccessible place or a fortified castle, and even gaining entry will be difficult. Jabberwock...: A large and fearsome monster, such as a Jabberwock, is terrifying the local inhabitants. Whoever slays the creature will gain untold riches, universal acclaim, etc. Can the characters find and slay the monster or will other NPC hunters beat them to it? Are the local authorities to be trusted or will they back out of their bargain once the monster is dead? Kali's Heroes: The characters find themselves fighting in a great and terrible war. They have been ordered to take a village already occupied by an enemy garrison. Fortunately for the characters, one of their NPC companions used to live in this village and he has a strange tale to tell. In the village lies the great and wealthy temple of Kali, now largely abandoned due to the fighting. Only a minimal staff of priests remain to guard the great treasures. So far, the occupiers have not dared desecrate the temple or maybe they don't yet realise what is inside. Can the characters break in and steal the treasure, will they have to fight off the occupiers, and can they perhaps strike a bargain with their foes? Meanwhile, what of the war? How long until others arrive on the scene? Detailing The Plot One of the things that will help you most as you create this adventure for your players will be a map of the area where the scenario is to take place. The amount of detail needed is up to you. It is always possible to improvise some details during play. If the setting is an underground complex, such as a dungeon, you should make an accurate scale map using graph paper. Areas can always be left blank, to be filled in later during other scenarios perhaps. If the adventure features a house or houses, then floor plans should be drawn for each level. Characters Once you have decided on the broad outline of the adventure, you will have to consider the roles of the players. If the players already have established characters, will these be suitable? If not, you will have to have the players create new characters. If the plot necessitates specific skills or specific careers, then have the players create characters as appropriate. Trappings are important too. Will the players require special trappings which must be bought locally? If the players already have established characters, make sure that they don't introduce magic items or exotic trappings that would spoil the game. If necessary, invent a feature of the game which will actually counter any such effect. Introduce NPCs as seems necessary, especially where the task is a difficult one. Adding The Features Once you have a map of your gaming area, you should consider where all the features within it are actually to be found. You can do this by numbering each room, area of corridor or whatever, and writing detailed notes for each. Remember, your scenario must make sense - a random hotch-potch of rooms containing treasure and assorted monsters doesn't make much sense. For example, you might write: Room number 1: A small, dark room approximately 3x3 yards with a low ceiling, well under 2 yards. It is illuminated by a shaft in the north wall which rises at an angle of 45°. A tiny dot of daylight can just about be seen at the end. The shaft is barred and too narrow for characters to climb unless they are Halflings or have the Contortionist skill. There is a door int he south wall (T''' 5 - locked from the inside, lock rating 3) and another door in the east wall ('''T 4 - latch on both sides). The southern door has a sliding grill to permit identification, exchange of passwords, etc. In the centre of the room is a large wooden table and two chairs, and on one of the chairs is a Goblin guard - basic profile - wearing chainmail and armed with a sword. He is asleep, but may have been awakened by a noisy party (test using the Hearing rules). He has a bunch of keys (for rooms 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6). The eastern door leads into room 2, the southern door leads to the outside. Remember to add details of treasures, magical items, and other features where you want them. Traps can also be positioned, as well as false doors, walls, secret passages, and other interesting diversions. Adding Creatures Make a note of specific creatures when placing features. Remember, creatures are not necessarily stupid - if the players are creating mayhem in a corridor, then creatures occupying nearby rooms will hear them and come to investigate. In other words, creatures should act as if they were 'real' themselves and do their best to stay alive and healthy. Also, creatures or people occupying rooms near each other must be doing so for a reason. For example, a group of rooms in an inn might be home to a local magistrate, his wife, his servants, and his bodyguards. The placement of NPCs and creatures must be logical within the context of the scenario. If the adventure is set within a Goblin stronghold, the characters will find Goblin or goblinoid creatures or their lackeys or prisoners; they shouldn't find a different creature in every room. Adding Events In many scenarios, it will be necessary to establish a pattern of events. For example, if the characters are robbing a temple, you will have to establish when the guards do their rounds. You might decide that the guards normally sit at the temple entrance, but that one of them checks the inner temple every quarter of an hour. This has two effects. If the players know the guards' routine, they will appreciate that they are going to have to hurry when they get inside, which might lead to all sorts of mishaps. On the other hand, if they have no idea of the guards' movements, then they may well be surprised by a sleepy guard wandering in as they are removing the treasure. Similarly, if the players break into a fortress, the time it takes for the alarm to be raised and a search mobilised will be very important. Events might occur which are part of the scenario but which do not directly affect the players, such as a stage coach leaving town or the local sheriff raising a posse and riding out into the hills. You can easily work out a rough schedule of events of this kind. Sometimes it will be necessary to change the timing of events, because of something that the players have done. Keep your options open - you can always improvise something at the last minute. Adding Wandering Creatures It is not only the players' characters that move around: other creatures should too. Sooner or later, it is quite likely that the two will meet. When setting up your scenario, consider the creatures or NPCs involved and the chances of meeting wandering creatures during the scenario. In general, almost any creature you place in an adventure might be a 'wandering' creature (unless it has been locked up in a cell, of course) and you ought to consider how all NPCs might be moving around as the players' characters are getting on with their own plans... Allow a percentage chance of meeting wandering creatures every so often. The actual chance will vary depending on the situation. Similarly, the type of creature will depend on the context of the scenario. For example, in an underground Goblin fortress you might allow a 10% chance of an encounter every 5 minutes or turns. 75% of such encounters will be with a group of D6 Goblins, 20% will be with a group of 2D6 Goblins and 5% will be with an appropriate random creature selected from the 'Underground' section of the wandering creature lists. Remember: you don't have to abide by your dice rolls - you are in control of the game and not vice versa. Decide On Experience Points General points about the way experience points should work appear in the section on experience. Most scenarios have specific objectives or a series of objectives. You must decide how many experience points are available for achieving each objective. The points are normally divided equally amongst the surviving players, sometimes less a few points if other contributing characters have died during the game. For a game that can be easily played within an evening by 3 or 4 players, you should generally award 200-300 points if the characters achieve their objective and something less than that, depending on how well they do get on, so that each player receives on average 25-100 points. Specific Character Objectives In most scenarios, you will present the entire party with the same overall goal and the same information. However, you can add spice to a game by giving individual characters specific personal objectives or information not known to the other players. For example, if the game involves a temple burglary, tell one of the players that there is a great jewel hidden inside a secret compartment behind the altar. Perhaps his character learned this from an NPC or discovered a reference in a book. The character might try to get hold of this jewel and, if this can be achieved, you should award the player an extra 20 experience points. Even better, introduce a personal motive for revenge - kinslaying, financial ruin, humiliation, and so on. A powerful NPC who befriended the party murdered the brother of one of the characters; the NPC doesn't realise the connection, nor do the other members of the party, but the player's character should earn 50 experience points (or more if the character is especially powerful) if vengeance is taken without upsetting the other players. Random Treasure When designing a scenario, it is a good idea to place treasure at the same time as the other items, so that you can keep control of the way the characters come across it. Obviously, you don't have to be 100% specific in your descriptions - you might like to just make a hote that a chest contains D100 Gold Crowns, a scroll, and an old string bag. You can then generate the actual amount of money and the actual type of scroll as and when the characters actually encounter it (if they ever do...). You need to be a little more careful than this with magical items, however, since the wrong one in the hands of a character can spoil a game. Be careful. Filling out all the details of a scenario can be very demanding. This is especially true if your scenario takes place in a town or city. Providing details for the contents of every house and details of the trappings of every citizen is just out of the question, particularly when you know that the characters may never actually find them unless they are being particularly clever. To allow for this, we have devised a series of random treasure charts. Using these charts, the GM can generate the valuable contents of a house or of a character's pockets, in general terms. The specific random charts for each category will have to be used to give exact details. The categories given are broad and you might like to add on more of your own. House - poor: This represents the house of a peasant; a hovel or a worker's cottage. House - affluent: This would be the house of a slightly better-off small-time tradesman, shop-keeper, or scholar. House - wealthy: A house like this would be owned by one of the richest members of society; a merchant, manufacturer, member of the gentry, or the lesser aristocracy. House - magician: A magician's house is likely to have very individual treasure. Workshop: Any workshop will contain items specific to the trade that goes on there. In addition, items might be kept on the property for safe-keeping or convenience. Shrine: Shrines are small buildings or simple shelters, usually dedicated to a minor god or long-dead local hero. Temple: A temple would be a good bet for a bit of petty larceny. It might contain anything from gold candlesticks to the collection box. Strip the lead from the roof if desperate. Large Hoarding Monster: Nearly all large monsters are attracted to shiny or valuable objects and like to accumulate hoards. These they secrete deep within their lairs. Small Hoarding Monster: A small hoarding monster is something no larger than a dog, but behaves in the same way as a large hoarding monster. Creature - Citizen: This represents an average sort of intelligent creature, a citizen of a town or a soldier, for example. Creature - Merchant: Merchants are rich individuals of their race who habitually carry large sums of money. Creature - Fop: This is a whimsical individual, very fond of jewels and fine garb and totally unconcerned about displaying wealth. Treasure Table The following tables can be used to generate treasure randomly: Quantities generally expressed as a percentage followed by a die roll: for example, 75% 2D6 indicates that there is a 75% chance of the class of item in question being present, and - if present - 2D6 seperate items will be found. 1% 1 means that there is a 1% chance of one item of the class being present. Where there is no percentage, the class of item will always be present, in the quantities indicated. Treasure Values Magic: The categories given for magic items are more or less self-explanatory, but reference should be make to the Magic section for specific items and ideas. No values are given for magic items; such items are worth whatever you can get for them. Players shouldn't be encouraged to think that they can buy powerful magic. Gems and Jewellery: Each item is worth 2D6 x 10 Gold Crowns. Of course, certain gems might be worth more if the GM decides to place a famous or fabulous treasure in the location. This is entirely up to you. Domestic Items: This includes candlesticks, cutlery, and plates - all of which can be made from precious metal and might incorporate special decoration, inlays, etc. Each item can be thought of as a set of cutlery, a number of plates, or whatever, rather than as 1 knife or 1 fork. Each item is worth D6 x 10 Gold Crowns. Again, some items might be worth more, but this is up to you. Objects d'art: These can be anything from painted miniatures in lockets to paintings or statues at life size or even larger. Works of art are hard to value. Any item is worth what you can get for it - which may be more or less than its actual value. You will be offered D20 x 10 Gold Crowns for each item. Clothes/Furs/Cloth: This includes fine rugs, hangings, and tapestries as well as clothing and other apparel. The value of each item is D6 x 5 Gold Crowns. Creating Non-Player Characters Often it will be necessary for the gamesmaster to create non-player characters for the game. These characters might take the form of opponents, or friends of the player characters, or even of people in the street. The players might decide that their coming adventure will be far too difficult to attempt unaided. By way of help, they might wish to recruit or hire fellow adventurers. Finding fellow adventurers isn't difficult; after all, the inns and market places are full of young souls looking for interesting employment. Non-player characters hired by the players are called Hirelings. In some instances, it is possible for the players to meet another party of adventurers, perhaps even bent upon the same task! Such parties are called NPC Parties. Hirelings and NPC parties, as well as any other characters, can be created using the character generation system. However, this can be time-consuming. Often it is better to assume that NPCs have average profiles and abilities. On other occasions, it is better for you to just invent something straight out of your head, without going to all the trouble of thoroughly generating a character. Basic Career Characters You can easily create a non-player, non-adventurer character with a single basic career, such as Thief, Woodsman, Initiate, etc. Basic career NPCs have all the skills and trappings given in the entry referring to their career. They will not generally have any attribute advances, although if the GM wishes to create an exceptional NPC, they could be given 1, 2, or 3 (or D3) advances from the relevant advance scheme. Advanced Characters First, decide what career you intend to give the NPC. Now work out which other careers the characters must have progressed through. For a level 3 Wizard, for example, this would be Wizard's Apprentice, level 1 Wizard, and level 2 Wizard. Where there is more than a single alternative, select any appropriate path - it is simplest to assume that the character reached their present career by the most direct route, although experienced GMs may wish an NPC to have gained experience in two or more quite diverse areas and can choose the character's past history as desired. Working from the character's basic career upwards, work out all the skills and trappings as appropriate. Then fill out each advance scheme in turn until you reach the character's career. Characters should not have received any points of advance in their current career. If the characer is a magician, then spells can be allocated at your discretion. D4 random spells from each level, plus D4 random Petty magic spells should be sufficient. Generating Random NPCs In most cases, the gamesmaster will want to generate an NPC for a specific purpose and will have some idea of the NPC's background, past history, and abilities. Occasionally, though, it may be necessarya to generate NPCs in a hurry - people in a tavern, for example, or someone that the characters bump into in the street. NPCs can be created totally randomly by using the character generation system and making the extra rolls described below to determine race, class, etc. Race: Determine the race of the NPC using a D6: Age and Abilities: A character's age and abilities are determined in the same way as for player characters, using the appropriate tables. Career Class: Determine the original class of the character using a D4: Career: Roll randomly on the relevant Basic Career Chart to determine the specific career type within the character's class, just as you would for generating a player character. Skills and Trappings: Work out skills and trappings as you would for a player character. Advanced characters may have trappings of a general nature which will have to be randomly determined or invented by the GM. For example, many advanced magician classes have a number of magic items. Dice randomly for these items where appropriate. Items too large or inappropriate for the current situation can be assumed to be 'at home'. Spells: Decide randomly. Assume D4 spells per level, plus D4 Petty magic spells. Advance Scheme: NPCs do not generally have any advances from their current career, unless the GM decides at the outset that they will be better than average NPCs. They may earn advances as a result of gaining experience after they enter the game and, if they are intended to last for more than one brief appearance, they should have character record sheets, just like player characters. Advance and Multi-Class: Once you have generated your NPC, roll to see if they have any additional careers. You should alter these chances if you decide to generate a particularly powerful NPC. Where a character is given a career from another class, it will be a basic career - the NPC has changed career classes. Random Parties To generate basic numbers for an NPC party, roll 2D6. If either die score is 6, roll another D6 and add the result. Generate each member of a party in turn. Obviously this can be a lengthy procedure and would normally be done before a game. It is a good idea to have a randomly generated party already prepared. Even if the whole party is not used, it is possible to lift individuals from it for particular encounters. Wandering Creatures If the players are moving through hostile territory or unknown lands, it is highly likely that they will meet other creatures or characters. These encounters are called wandering encounters. Wandering encounters are not planned by the gamesmaster before the game, as other encounters are, but are improvised on the spur of the moment. Encounter Tests Depending on the territory and circumstances, the gamesmaster can make a percentage test every so often in order to see whether a wandering encounter happens. For example: Encounter tests should only be made underground if the area is abandoned or generally uninhabited. Otherwise, most - if not all - encounters will be with members of the race occupying the underground complex. You can alter the frequency of tests and the chance of encounters as desired - the figures given above are about average for the terrain in question and you can change things to reflect an unusually busy area or an unusually quiet one. Where players are making long journeys - perhaps of several days duration - you might prefer to roll once per day rather than every few hours. Simply work out the chances of an encounter happening on a daily basis. Chances of 100% or more equal one encounter. More than one enounter per day will tend to slow things up too much. What Creatures Are Encountered? Once it has been decided that the party has met something, the next step is to decide exactly who or what is encountered. Published scenarios will generally have random encounter tables provided for the terrain in question; if you have written the scenario, you should have a good idea of the sort of creatures which are likely to be encountered in a given area. As well as the general terrain, the immediate surroundings should be taken into account. For example, if the party is travellingalong a trade road, most encounters are likely to be human merchants, roadwardens, and other travelling types; ruins are likely to be infested with rats, bats, and possibly the occasional monster; and so on. Not all random encounters involve the party being attacked by monsters; in fact, these should be in the minority. The party will often have quite enough on their hands just completing the scenario and a series of random encounters with powerful monsters can seriously weaken them. Random encounters are simply diversions along the way and should not interfere too much with the progress through the scenario. How Many Are There? Again, this is largely up to the gamesmaster. In scenarios where random encounter tables are provided, numbers will be specified. When you write scenarios yourself, you should have at least a rough idea of the numbers in which monsters appear. For general purposes, humanoids and the less powerful undead are usually encountered in groups of D4, D6, or 2D6, while animals and monsters are normally solitary unless the relevant entry in the Bestiary indicates otherwise. If in doubt, you should use D4 or D6, bearing in mind that the more powerful a creature is, the more likely it is to be solitary. Optionally, if a 4 is rolled on a D4 or a 6 is rolled on a D6, more creatures are present than would normally be expected. Roll again and add the score onto the original result. What Are They Doing? The gamesmaster will always have to improvise details of what wandering creatures are doing in that particular spot at that time. Wherever possible, attempt to rationalise the appearance of wandering creatures in terms of the game plot. For example, if you meet a group of travelling Halflings coming from the opposite direction, they must have come from or through the next town or city, unless they went round it for some reason. So they will know a little about it. In most cases, wandering creatures will be doing one of the four things: Travelling: The encountered creature is simply travelling for some reason. Intelligent creatures might be moving house, relaying a message, sightseeing, etc. Most times, they will appear in front of the party, travelling in the opposite direction along the road. Wild animals and monsters are just ambling around; they are not hungry and will not attack unless provoked. War-Party/Hungry: The encounter is with a war-party of potentially hostile creatures. They are equipped and ready for war. Perhaps they are bandits, part of a raiding force, or even a large scale invasion. Possibly they are governmental forces looking for trouble makers or bandits. Animals and other non-intelligent creatures will be hungry. Hungry creatures will often attack if they stand any chance of success. Ambush: These encounters are exactly the same as those with war-parties, as described above, except that the enemy has successfully ambushed the part - giving them surprise. Trading: The encountered creatures are engaged upon a trading venture. They will probably try to avoid a fight where possible, although they will defend themselves if attacked. Encounters such as these will always have money or goods to trade and, subject to a favourable reaction, may even trade with the party. How Do They React? It will depend very much on circumstances how creatures react in any one encounter. It will also depend on what the characters do. Do they appear to be hostile, suspicous, untrusting, and so on? It is left to the gamesmaster to decide how encountered creatures react, bearing in mind the general plot of the game, the attitude of the characters and the possible disruptive effect to the plot of of them meeting large and powerful creatures. Players must be given the chance to avoid potentially dangerous encounters. In general, you should be able to gague the encountered creatures' reaction to the party from their description in the Bestiary or from their career. Rather than rolling dice to decide how the creatures react, you should role-play the encounter and allow the situation to develop, encouraging the players to do likewise. Some creatures, of course, will attack immediately, but many will be wary, especially if the party is large and obviously well-equipped. Remember to take into account differences in race and alignment, and to test for animosity and hatred where appropriate, and be aware of the general plot of your story - randomly encountered creatures can still be involved in the adventure in a direct, though not necessarily central, way. Perhaps an opponent of the players' characters bribed the bandits to attack them? Just as often, the encounter will be just a complete side-track. When a party is made up of adventurers of differing races and alignments, the worst result can be assumed. Category:Rules Category:Scenarios